eating cucumbers without permission...

There was some worry last month when a few fanfiction sites were sent cease-and-desist notices by the MPAA for daring to use their rating system (e.g. G, PG, PG-13, R). In what I assume is a response to this, Fanfiction.net just announced that they're "adopting the Fiction Rating guide from FictionRatings.Com". (The two sites are owned by the same person.)

The decision to adopt a system which isn't legally murky is admirable, but this is only marginally better.

Fiction Rating "unverified" symbols and textual guidelines may be used at no cost provided the following conditions are met:

1. Non-Profit use: personal use or via an organization.
2. All content using the Fiction Ratings system must be completely free, without requirement of registration, and be openly accessible to the general public.

Why oh why couldn't they make it completely open? It's not even usable by sites like Restricted Section, which requires free registration to keep minors from accessing NC-17/X-rated content.